Next-to-leading order jet cross sections in polarized hadronic collisions

Abstract

We present a next-to-leading order computation in QCD of one-jet and two-jet cross sections in polarized hadronic collisions. Our results are obtained in the framework of a general formalism that deals with soft and collinear singularities using the subtraction method. We construct a Monte Carlo program that generates events at the partonic level. We use this code to give phenomenological predictions for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{S}=500$ GeV, relevant for the spin physics program at RHIC. The possibility of using jet data to constrain the poorly known polarized parton densities is examined.

21 pages Latex, uses amssymb.sty and epsfig.sty, 10 ps figures included